Michael walks at the rate of 5 feet per second on a long straight path.
Trash pails are located every 200 feet along the path. A garbage truck travels at 10 feet per second in the same direction as Michael and stops for 30 seconds at each pail. As Michael passes a pail, he notices the truck ahead of him just leaving the next pail. How many times will Michael and the truck meet?

I am clueless on this one. (Crying)

Vicky.

Thanks.

Nov 11th 2009, 11:25 PM

Grandad

Hello Vicky1997

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicky1997

Michael walks at the rate of 5 feet per second on a long straight path.
Trash pails are located every 200 feet along the path. A garbage truck travels at 10 feet per second in the same direction as Michael and stops for 30 seconds at each pail. As Michael passes a pail, he notices the truck ahead of him just leaving the next pail. How many times will Michael and the truck meet?

I am clueless on this one. (Crying)

Vicky.

Thanks.

Have you tried drawing a distance-time graph, with time horizontal and distance vertical? Michael starts at (0, 0) and has a straight line graph sloping upwards with a fixed gradient (5 feet per second). The truck starts at (0, 200), and has a graph that consists of a series of more steeply sloping line segments (10 feet per second) alternating with horizontal line segments (when the truck is stationary).

They meet, of course, where the two graphs intersect.

Give it a try.

Grandad

Nov 12th 2009, 07:38 PM

Vicky1997

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grandad

Hello Vicky1997Have you tried drawing a distance-time graph, with time horizontal and distance vertical? Michael starts at (0, 0) and has a straight line graph sloping upwards with a fixed gradient (5 feet per second). The truck starts at (0, 200), and has a graph that consists of a series of more steeply sloping line segments (10 feet per second) alternating with horizontal line segments (when the truck is stationary).